Any one with their free content articles rank high in search engine?

I am submitting free content articles to article directory to market affiliates program .Just wondering anyone with their free content articles rank high in search engine like Google (that's mean when people search for your targeted keyword , your article will appear in the 1st page).What are the steps to follow to acheive this result ?
Is it better to submit to 1 directory only or to many directories, anyone can help ? Thanks in advance .

 

When searching (with Google), I've seen many articles on free article directories rank high on SERPs. Not for any competitive keywords, but for niche ones, yes.

 

Creating a unique and attractive title is the first thing to consider. In addition, I always submit to hundred of article directories

 

Thanks for that .
But submitting to hundred of article directories , will it become duplicate content that Google hates? please enlighten ,thanks .

By the way , i have check the keyword density for some of the articles (submit by other people) that rank high in 1st page of Google, it got only a density of between 1 - 2 % , i am confused cause lots of people advised to have a keyword density of between 3 - 6% in the article ???

 

isnt duplicate content bannable

 

Plenty of sites dupe wikipedia and still rank

 

I used to get a lot of those on Google, but I can't say I've seen a single one lately (in the last 6 months or so).

 

Doesn't matter because you never submit an article that is a duplicate with one on your own site. You create articles specifically for the directories.

 

the duplicate article is not going to be on your site.....I always post the articles on my sites first and then write a short version and submit that to the article directories.